Lawmakers jeopardizing lives of LGBTQ+ Ohioans
From detrimental legislative attacks to a general lack of lived and legal equality, the Ohio lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community faces numerous inequities daily.
Healthcare inequities are especially concerning. LGBTQ+ people suffer from higher rates of substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and mental illnesses. Despite an overwhelming need for comprehensive care, existing laws and Statehouse bills restrict the community’s access.
Gay, bisexual, and transgender people are disproportionately affected by HIV in Ohio and across other states.
Needle not moving for communities of color
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men made up 67% of all new HIV cases in 2019. Despite a federal initiative to reduce the number of new HIV infections by 90% by 2030, the increase in HIV cases demonstrates that the HIV epidemic is far from over.
Modern medical advances in HIV prevention, like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP), have shown remarkable success in preventing new infections.
Even so, its adoption in Black and Latinx communities has not been adequate, demonstrating that existing efforts have not moved the needle for communities of color.
HIV prevention strategies and policies largely ignore that the fabric of education, healthcare, economic, and criminal legal systems is interlaced with structural racism and social inequalities. Some remote policies, such as the Ryan White program, help individuals pay for healthcare services and medication, but they are not enough to eliminate the HIV epidemic in Ohio.
Those living with HIV criminalized
Inequitable laws around healthcare access and persecution due to health status are other issues in Ohio. Laws currently in effect actively discriminate against people living with HIV, punishing them with higher criminal penalties solely because of their health status.
For instance, physical assault by a person with HIV can be escalated and charged. Laws that impose harsher penalties on Hiv-positive people, such as the ones in Ohio, create blatant inequities in the criminal legal system.
Not only is this an inhumane view of criminality, but also unconstitutional, as it involves an invasion of an individual’s right to privacy and creates an intentional inequity in punishment.
Moreover, such laws exacerbate the fear and stigma around HIV, which hampers prevention experts’ efforts to avoid HIV spread in the state.
As the fear of receiving a positive diagnosis increase, the likelihood of engaging in preventive behaviors decreases.
Ohio legislators must stop criminalizing healthcare and repeal active laws if we are to counter the fear and stigma at the heart of the state’s healthcare inequities.
Transgender youth targeted
The criminalization of LGBTQ+ healthcare in Ohio continues today as legislators introduce bills to ban lifesaving care for transgender and gender non-conforming youth.
In October of 2021, Ohio legislators introduced House Bill 454 to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors despite opposition from the American Academy of Pediatricians and the Endocrine Society.
The bill, while defeated in 2022, but was recently reintroduced. Among other things, the new version would give children on hormones 180 days to stop.
Existing options for the transgender and gender non-conforming community are already inadequate without such adverse legislation.
Fear of harm and harassment
Healthcare practitioners’ general lack of knowledge of transgender and gender non-conforming-affirming medical practices poses one of the most significant barriers to adequate healthcare.
It is not uncommon to fear seeking treatment as a transgender and gender non-conforming person; in a 2016 study, a national sample of transgender individuals found that 30.8% of participants did not seek health care due to discrimination.
The expectation of harm and harassment hinders many from seeking necessary services, especially regarding sexual health.
From HIV treatment to gender-affirming care and beyond, we must move past harmful stigmas that fuel oppressive legislation.
LGBTQ+ Ohioans deserve comprehensive healthcare. It is about time that our laws reflected this.
Donte T. Boyd is an assistant professor at The Ohio State University College of Social Work. He also serves as a Visiting Research Faculty at Yale University School of Public Health through the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA). He studies how families contribute to or prevent HIV prevention.
Colby Tarrh is pursuing his Master of Social Work degree at Ohio State, where he works as a research assistant for Boyd. He is a policy and advocacy intern at the National Association of Social Workers Ohio Chapter.
Micah Mitchell earned their bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Cincinnati, and graduates with a Master of Social Work degree in May. Michell works as a graduate research associate at Ohio State and a policy fellow at the ACLU of Ohio.